Austin Mitchell MP visits sterile service facility providing service to the Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to consider best practice in the standards of surgical instrument sterilisation and clinical safety.

Local MP Austin Mitchell took time out of his schedule to visit the Sterile Service facility operated by Synergy Health, delivering services to the Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust as the number of hospital acquired infections continues to be debated and remains high on the political agenda.

Austin Mitchell MP was invited by Kevin Holder, Managing Director of Hospital Sterilisation Services, for an exclusive behind the scenes tour in order to demonstrate Synergy’s reusable surgical instrument sterilisation services as a best practice benchmark for other hospitals and how this improves service and quality as well as significantly reduced operating costs.

Synergy Health is a global leader in specialist outsourced services to healthcare providers and provides vital surgical instrument sterilisation services that support the trust’s operating theatres and wards, as well as the overall clinical safety of the trust, the standard of which have a direct impact upon Austin Mitchell’s constituents in Great Grimsby.

Mr Mitchell commented: “I am pleased to have had the opportunity to visit Synergy Health’s facility in Grimsby. I was impressed that Synergy Health makes a great contribution both in terms of jobs and to the National Health Service and its economies of scale and effective logistics help us to control costs"

The hospital sterilisation service facility in Grimsby is vitally important to the health and cleanliness of Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Kevin Holder commented: “We are delighted that Austin Mitchell responded to our invitation and can see what excellence in standards and facilities looks like behind the scenes. We feel very strongly that the cost savings demanded in the healthcare sector do not need to impact the standards of sterile services or compromise patient safety. We shall continue to invite interested parties for behind the scenes tours to ensure that quality, safety and value for money remains at the forefront of the healthcare agenda.”

Synergy Health is the largest provider of outsourced hospital sterilisation services in Europe with 19 facilities across the UK and further facilities in Europe, the United States and China. It safely sterilises around 80 million surgical instruments each year from NHS acute and community care Trusts and the independent sector throughout the country.

Synergy’s services offer significant economies of scale and efficiency savings to the NHS, and Synergy is fully engaged with the reforms in healthcare and is committed to supporting the NHS in reducing its cost burden while striving for the highest quality of care and best outcomes for patients.